The present invention is in the field of automobile surveillance and solves the problem of surveillance in automobiles when the user is away. Upon the occurrence of an event such as a break in, car door being slammed into owners car, vandalism (key scratches), etc, the invention records, stores, and transmits relevant information, and alerts the owner of the event. The owner can continue to monitor in real time as well as view recorded data of the event. Moreover, the user can also monitor the information being recorded (video, audio) remotely any time without the occurrence of the security event.
The invention generally comprises one or more cameras mounted on the automobile (interior or exterior), either stationary or capable of moving; possible camera placements include, within exterior mirror housings, on the license plate brackets (to facilitate rear viewing), interior—where the seatbelt hooks on to the frame of the car, one or more microphones (interior or exterior);
a motion detection system;
a tracking system to track a moving object;
a recording system to record video and audio;
a storage system capable of storing the recorded information;
a video display located in the automobile and/or remotely via hand held device to display the recorded information; a wireless communication system capable of transmitting the recorded information; an indicator to alert the owner that an event has occurred; capability for the user to continue to monitor if vehicle is stolen (user could view thief through the camera and have the ability to disable/turn off the car);
video/audio recording is synchronized to the location on the car of the event and recording begins there;
the object is tracked if moving, otherwise, system waits for movement; the purpose thereof is to prevent recording unwanted information;
the system will utilize state of the art compression/storage techniques to efficiently transmit the electronic information to storage means and/or user device;
the system will decide what to send thus eliminating sending unwanted information;
the system will be optimized for highly relevant video recording areas such as license plate elevation, and human head elevation;
the user has the ability to control cameras and recording remotely;
the system allows for the user to change destination information on the fly (e.g. switch between cell phones, pda's, computer, or 3rd party monitoring service), the user can make these changes remotely;
the system allows for the user to provide the transmitter and/or to switch between transmitting sources (e.g. user buys new cell phone and wants to convert old cell phone to transmitter, the user simply installs (e.g. downloads) the necessary software, the software takes care of initializing the system), the invention has blue tooth (or similar) technology to allow it to use the new device and to communicate with peripherals (cameras, microphones), the user provided device must have the capability of wireless (cellular, etc.) communication;
video recording should have ability to record in low light situations utilizing infrared or other known means;
any exterior cameras should have means for cleaning themselves off from dirt, snow, rain, etc, this can be accomplished by a mechanical wiper, or fluids such as water or air;
the user will have the ability to log on (so to speak) to monitor remotely even when there is no event;
the location and placement of the cameras would be such that the field of view is maximized in all directions; the same is true for the microphones;
the motion detection system could be video based (e.g. monitors pixel changes), using movement (e.g. ultrasonic or radio frequency), sound/audio, or vibration;
the tracking system can track a moving object; e.g. a car door hits the owner's car and the system would track the car as it moves away while recording video, or the system could monitor the car and re-start recording upon the leaving of the car;
the recording system would be video or still frame and capable of low light recording (e.g. infrared);
the storage system is capable of storing the recorded information in the appropriate format, an added advantage of remote storage: would not loose the data if the car were stolen, the data would be uploaded before or while the car was in motion, there could be a local and remote storage systems;
the video display could be located in the automobile and/or remotely via hand held device (e.g. key chain or keyless entry, cell phone, pda, other) to display the recorded information;
the wireless communication system should be capable of transmitting the recorded information in the appropriate format (e.g. cellular, email, text mail, rss feed, sms, or other communication method), the method depends on what is being transmitted—e.g. text mail cannot transmit video, the video could be transmitted as streaming video (real time or otherwise), or file transfer for remote execution;
an indicator serves the purpose of alerting the owner that an event has occurred; it could be part of the navigation system; the indicator function could be a dedicated piece of hardware (e.g. light) or a software based event (flashing icon, etc.).